A MAN who died after a night-time fall from the balcony of his hotel in Majorca may have been sleepwalking, an inquest heard yesterday.

Martin Haigh-Hadfield, from Talbot Road, Great Sutton, Cheshire, had travelled to the Spanish resort with his friend Darren McCoy for a short overnight stay last year.

The hearing was told the 34-year-old taxi driver had been drinking while waiting for his plane at Liverpool's John Lennon Airport and had several vodkas during the flight to Palma.

But the inquest at Chester coroner's court was told that Mr Haigh-Hadfield had gone to bed early and that his friend did not think the amount he had would have particularly affected him.

The hearing was also told that no reports had been made available about the level of alcohol in the dead man's body.

Coroner Janet Napier said: "We can't find out how much alcohol he had in his blood, but we have been told he was a regular drinker and his friend did not think the amount he had would have particularly affected him."

Mr McCoy, of Sutton Way, Ellesmere Port, said they had been to several bars on the night of September 15 before returning to their hotel around midnight.

At this point, Mr Haigh-Hadfield said he was tired and would not be going back out.

Mr McCoy went out again and did not return to the hotel until around 3am when he was unable to get back into their room.

He said: "I kept banging on the door and rang his phone, but I couldn't hear it ringing.

"I wasn't worried because I thought he might have turned

it on silent. Then I fell asleep outside the room in the hallway, and got woken up by the Spanish police and hotel manager about 8am."

Mr McCoy told the hearing that the police asked him to look out over the balcony and identify his friend's body from four floors up.

A report by the Spanish police, read out at the inquest, said Mr Haigh-Hadfield's body had been discovered that morning lying on a patio below his room by another guest.

The Spanish investigators said there were no signs of violence in the hotel room or other suspicious circumstances.

The report added that a balcony on a lower floor showed signs of having been struck by Mr Haigh-Hadfield's falling body.

Mr Haigh-Hadfield's mother Dolores said her son, who was well-travelled and went often to Spain, had been booked to go to Australia for a month.

He had worked at a factory in Bromborough since leaving school and became a taxi driver after being made redundant 18 months before he died.

She said: "This leaves me wondering how he came to fall. I'm left with the 'ifs and 'buts'.

"Until the day I die this is going to haunt me.

"He did sleepwalk, and was a sleepwalker all his life. I wonder if he went on to the balcony like that."

Deputy coroner for Cheshire Dr Janet Napier said they would probably never know what happened in Mr Haigh-Hadfield's final moments, and recorded a verdict of accidental death.